Automattic Acquires Longreads, The Home For Long Content

Longreads, the home for long stories has been acquired by Automattic, the company behind the WordPress blogging platform.

Longreads, founded in 2009, is dedicated to helping people find and share the best storytelling in the world, including both nonfiction and fiction.

Longreads are defined as anything over 1,500 words. They’re stories that are best enjoyed away from your desk — whether it’s on a daily commute, an airplane, a subway, or your couch.

Longreads founder and CEO Mark Armstrong, said that the Longreads services will continue to function exactly the same way as it has been before the acquisition.

Longreads sustained itself since 2009, through a membership model, where users can pay $3 a month which gives them early access to new features.

Mark also confirms that the membership model will still continue to support the editorial budget which will help them to bring in more stories to this community.

To our Longreads Members, you helped us keep this service thriving for five years. For that we are truly grateful. We intend to keep the Longreads Membership active: If you are a Longreads Member, your generous contributions will continue to go toward our editorial budget, to ensure we can bring more stories to this community.

As both the companies share the same goal to serve stories in a better way, Mark Armstrong describes Automattic as the right partner to expand their services.